Control technologies are continually being improved that allow individuals to set their personal preferences related to controllable systems. More specifically some motor vehicles presently have on board systems that allow a limited number of users to recall and change from within the vehicle the settings of controllable features related to the powertrain, the body and the chassis of the vehicle according to their personal preferences. For instance such features include transmission shifting characteristics, engine operating parameters, hybrid vehicle characteristics, inside and outside mirror positions, seat adjustments, cabin temperature levels and sound system settings.
The aforementioned vehicle prior art systems can include a memory on board the vehicle that stores the preferences of approximately two users. In some vehicles a switch is located in the cabin having positions corresponding to each of the users to enable a user to select his or her desired preferences. A disadvantage of this approach is that the user must wait for some settings such as those related to the mirrors and seats to take effect after operating the switch. Key fobs are also used that provide unique codes that identify the user to the memory and provide a preference selection signal corresponding to the user as the user approaches the vehicle. Thus the undesirable wait time can be reduced for a change in the settings to take effect. In general such prior art arrangements only allow the settings of one vehicle to be controlled from a position in the near proximity to that vehicle. Moreover the instructions for programming such systems are usually included in books or other media that can be difficult to understand, cumbersome to use and can be misplaced. Thus these prior art arrangements lack flexibility in addressing the needs for a large number of users of a given vehicle and portability of a user's preferences to a large number of vehicles.
In view of the foregoing, it should be appreciated that it is desirable to provide a method and system having greater flexibility and portability for enabling changes in personalization settings. It is desirable that such method and system allow an increased number of users to control their preferences in multiple vehicles from many locations. Also it is desired to provide a computerized or server based method and system that allows a user to remotely view and change his or her personalization settings for vehicles. The computerized system allows the user to learn about the features and to perform preference selection methods by using a graphical user interface “GUI” display system and/or a voice activated system. The GUI interacts with the user to enter and display or provide selected information related to the personalization settings of a motorized vehicle including the accessories thereof in a new, enjoyable and meaningful way. It is also desirable for such GUIs to provide a teaching tool for vehicle sales people, drivers, potential customers and other vehicle users. Furthermore it is desirable for the system and method to provide real time data to the users thereof. Moreover, it is desirable that such method and system require only minimal changes to the other portions of the overall onboard vehicle systems. Changes such as either wiring changes or the redesigns of the vehicle are to be avoided because of the expense associated therewith. Furthermore it is desirable that such method and system in one form utilize already available networked or web-based electronic systems, subsystems and components that can be readily programmed from remote locations.
Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent brief summary, detailed description, appended claims, and abstract, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.